Louise Brooks (1906 - 1985)

The American dancer and actress started as a chorus girl before signing a contract with the Paramount. However, loathing Hollywood and its clique, Louise Brooks moved to Germany where she worked with the expressionist director, G.W Pabst, and starred in her best-known films, before retiring in 1935. This choice gave her immortality as a silent film legend as much as her iconic garçonne bobbed haircut, imitated by many independent women. The actress was rediscovered in the 1950s by French historians who rehabilitated her as a major acting figure which amused Louise Brooks who saw her career with a cynical eye: 'there is no other occupation in the world that so closely resembled enslavement as the career of a film star.' She definitely inspired many epigones with this German cabaret style of hers that praises a playful attitude towards sex boundaries.